July in Review at Farmersgirl Kitchen

I thought I'd have a look back at what I had posted during July and was surprised by just how many posts I found.  Some of the events took place earlier but all have been written and posted in July, here is a little reminder of the food and the fun!


Berrytastic Strawberry and Blueberry Cake; Peanut Butter, Oat and Chocolate Chip Cookies, The Slow Cooker Cookbook Giveaway, Crab Cakes by the Ocean at Pictou Lodge.



Hugh's Honey and Peanut Butter Flapjacks; At the Royal Highland Show with Quality Meat Scotland (and Chef Jacqueline O'Donnell); Appleby and Ullswater Staycation: On My Kitchen Table.

Super Simple Chicken Curry from Dhruv Baker's new book Spice; Mexican Chicken in the Slow Cooker and Courgette and Hummus Pizza.


The Slow Cooker Challenge Round Up - Summer Slow Cooker

Labels: chocolate chip cookie, curry, flapjacks, Hotel Chocolat, iced tea, July, Pizza, Round Up, slow cooker, strawberries, Ullswater

posted by Janice @ 19:00 2 Comments

Sticky Toffee Pudding Cupcakes for Macmillan Cancer Support

Sticky Toffee Pudding Cupcakes

I thought I'd show you the baking I did for the Macmillan Cancer Support 'World's Biggest Coffee Morning.  We didn't have our coffee morning on 28th September, we had ours on Friday 5th October.  There are three different buildings where I work and usually all the bakes would be brought together in one of the buildings.  However, staff in the building where I work were having a staff meeting at the time of the coffee morning, so I agree to keep my bakes in our building so they could make their donations and enjoy the baking.  I'm pleased to say that the cakes raised £30 and along with the sale of raffle tickets and some additional donations, we raised a total of £85.

Mini Sticky Toffee Pudding Cupcakes

I made some teeny tiny cakes for those who wanted a small sweet treat.

Rum and Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This cookie recipe is in the Great British Bake Off book 2. I used Old Jamaica chocolate which is a dark chocolate with rum and raisins. These were very popular especially with men!

Lorraine Pascale's Party Time Chocolate Fridge Cake

These sweet treats went down well at the coffee morning,  adding maltesers to a chocolate 'tiffin' recipe is a great idea from Lorraine Pascale and the recipe is in the 'Little Book of Treats' sold by Marks and Spencer on behalf of Macmillan Cancer Support.

 

Sticky Toffee Pudding Cupcakes

for 12-16 cupcakes

180g (6 1/2oz) pitted and chopped dates
180ml (6 1/2 fl oz) boiling water
80g (3oz) unsalted butter, softened
150g (5 1/2oz) soft brown sugar
2 large eggs
180g (6 1/2) plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1tsp vanilla extract

for the buttercream
75g (3oz) butter, softened
225g (8oz) icing sugar, sieved
3 tbsp milk

for the decoration
Toffee or fudge pieces

1. Place the chopped dates in a bowl, pour over the boiling water and leave to soak for about 20 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F, Gas 5 and line a muffin tin with cases
3. Beat the butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy.  Break in the eggs, one at a time and mix well.
4. Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the egg and butter mixture and mix until the batter is smooth.
5.  Add the vanilla extract to the date mixture, add this and mix by hand until evenly dispersed.
6.  Fill each case about 2/3 full with the mixture.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes until risen and springy to the touch.  Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tin and place on a wire rack to col completely before icing.

Buttercream
1. Place all the ingredients together in a bowl and beat until they are smooth and blended, about 2-3 minutes.
2. Fill a piping bag and using a Wilton 1M star nozzle, pipe from outside to the centre of the buns.
3. Decorate  with toffee or fudge pieces

Labels: chocolate chip cookie, Lorraine Pascale, Macmillan Cancer Support, Maltesers, Sticky Toffee Pudding Cupcakes, World's Biggest Coffee Morning

posted by Janice @ 10:53 13 Comments

Dunblane Hydro and Nick Nairn's Restaurant

After a very disappointing two weeks holiday in June, much of which was spent decorating, we decided to have a weekend away and got a great dinner, bed and breakfast deal at the Doubletree Hilton Dunblane Hydro, not far from Stirling.

The hotel has recently been refurbished and also has it's own leisure centre with pool, gym and spa treatments.  Your room is guaranteed to be ready by 4pm but we arrived early just after lunch time, left our cases at reception and headed off for a pre-booked massage, then spent time lounging by the pool, followed by a swim.

We had a standard room with king size bed.  I've stayed in a few Hilton Hotels on trips for work and they all look pretty much the same. The bed was really comfortable which is more than can be said for many hotel beds!


Ah, the first sight of food!  Yes, you are greeted at reception with warm chocolate chip cookies and they are very delicious.  Sadly, you only get one and there are no little packs of biccies in your room, even on the second day of your stay.  I also thought they were a bit mean with in room coffee packs, especially as the coffee bought in the bar was extortionate.  I have learned never to go near the mini bar, just don't even open the door because it is weight controlled and any disturbance seem to end up with extras on your bill.  Although, they will remove it when they have checked the contents.



We ate, on both nights, in The Kailyard Restaurant by Nick Nairn.  Nick Nairn was involved in creating the restaurant three years ago and includes some tried and tested Nick Nairn classics, identified by his signature beside them on the menu.  There was live music in the restaurant on both nights, the Friday night band were unobtrusive and it was quite nice especially as we ate quite early when we ate and there were quite a few empty seats when we started - soon filled up though.

We ordered some olive bread to accompany our starters.

I chose this 'Classic Cocktail of brown shrimps, Loch Duart smoked salmon 'Nick Nairn', Hass avocado and cocktail sauce'.  Very retro and very nice indeed, there were shrimps and salmon all the way down to the bottom of the glass and the taste was fresh and light.  I gave this 8/10

Brian went for the Tarbert crab and coley fish cake with an Asian slaw, coriander and sweet chilli dressing.  Brian gave this 7/10 as it was pleasant but nothing special.

We both chose the same main course, 'Pan fried Scrabster monkfish. herb crushed potatoes, roast and braised fennel with sauce Jacqueline'.  This dish did not disappoint, the herb crushed potatoes were particularly delicous and brilliant for soaking up the sauce.  The fennel was nicely braised and went well with the monkfish and potatoes.   Definitely an 8/10.
I added a side dish of buttered summer greens which consisted of french beans, peas and asparagus.  I really loved this as a side dish and there was probably enough there for three people.  Brian ordered the Rocket and Parmesan salad, but he also ate some of my vegetables.


We were very full after all that food so decided to order one dessert and two spoons!  We went for Warm Pear and Apricot Crumble with Honeycomb Icecream.  The crumble was a bit disappointing, it was a crumble and I could easily have made it myself.  The Honeycomb icecream was much better, light and creamy with crunchy honeycomb pieces through it and a little shortbread biscuit.

I was not sponsored to write this post, I did not recieve any discount or gifts. These are my own views based on my experience of Dunblane Hydro and The Kailyard Restaurant by Nick Nairn. I'll be back with part two soon!

Labels: chocolate chip cookie, Dunblane Hydro, Hilton, honeycomb, monkfish, Nick Nairn, restaurant review, shrimp

posted by Janice @ 22:18 5 Comments